The group’s asset management division saw assets under management rise by a modest 2% to £9.3bn, from £9.1bn in the previous six months.
“These are the half year results. The asset management part of the business has only recently been restructured and built. It is likely to see more phases of growth,” Pras Jeyanandhan, an analyst at Berenberg said.
Advised AUM decreased slightly to £5bn, from £5.1bn posted on 31 July 2013. However total managed AUM saw a slight increase of nearly 5%, to £6.5bn from £6.2bn in the previous six months, which was attributed to positive inflows and investment performance.
Income from advice and other services in its asset management arm grew 6% to £17.6m, from £16.6m posted previously.
The group’s securities business Winterflood saw adjusted operating profit soar by 81% to £13.4m, boosted by improved trading conditions. The group also said it increased its dividend by 10% to 16.5p.
“We are confident that we will continue to increase our operating margin as we grow our overall AUM by improving the efficiency of our advice proposition and maintaining strong cost discipline to deliver further operating leverage as the business grows,“ the company stated.
Close Brothers’ asset management business announced a new proposition for advised clients in November 2011. In May 2012, it launched an offering for self-directed clients to go directly to its investment portal.
